To developers

[squareyes]

Being a novice to Linux, and command line,
I have tried a variety of versions

Caldera
Red Hat 7, and 7.1
Mandrake 7, 7.2, and 8.0
Turbo 6.1
SuSe 6.3

caldera gets most of the way through install
and crashes.

Red Hat7 installs then wont open Kpackage
completely
Red Hat 7.1 won't run LILO, On boot gets to LIL prompt and no further, can start with boot disk, then linuxconf doesn't work, tells me to install linuxconfig. (from where?) When moving the curser, imprints of it are left, and if it touches the edges, pieces of the edge of the window get removed or distorted.

SuSe crashes on install

Turbo also crashes on install

Mandrake 7 is the best so far, but will not open Kpackage completely, get the bottom half of window only.and then it crashes.
Mandrake 7.2 and 8 the same.
Being a novice I am commited to formatting C: being unable to access Win98 after every failed install, have tried Clean installs, updates, in just about every style, graphical, Low resolution, and text, but am still unable to achieve sucess.

At the moment I am using the GIMP, a very good programme,but it seems a waste to use the operating system and drive space for one programme. I have managed to set up Internet connection, but what good is it if I can't download and install?

I have purchased Complete Idiots Guide to
Open Linux 1.3 (Caldera) Sam's teach yourself Linux-Mandrake 7 Installing SuSE Linux 6.3, and various small books from local magazine publishers.

For someone coming from an operating system,
that is relativelly straightforward, it seems that it is really necessary to be well educated in the inner workings of Linux before any attempt is made to think about using it. I have been on this for a week now, both day and night(till 2.30am most nights) and am just about completely frustrated. All versions seem to behave completely diferently, with something not working in them all, or is it me? Maybe.

Can someone tell me of a version that is trouble free, or is one under development? as I don't much care to support Dear old Bill.

squareyes

[killerasp]

ive never had too many problems with rh 7.1. im going to switch over to 7.2. If you run into problems, just work it out. you are not gonna learn anything if you keep switching.

[squareyes]

I am very interested in learning how this system operates but would like to have it installed first, and learn from there .

[squareyes]

I tried the different versions over the last 5 months. and gave it away in dispair.

This last week I have been working on Red Hat, solely, in the hope I could get it up and running as my other half is away and I have relative peace to work on it.

squareyes

[slacker_x]

What are your trying to install on?

I'm surprised that you are having so many problems getting linux to install.

[killerasp]

the installtion system on all new distros are only getting better.

[thedexman]

The only major install annoyance I remeber is installing Slackware of many many floppy disks. Kind like when my neighbors bought Windows 95 right after it came out and asked me to install it for them. It was like a lot of floppies. Win 3.1 was only 7 or 8 floppies.

[squareyes]

Thanks for the suggestions,
the first 3 versions I tried all
crashed on install. caldera, turbo and suse,
and havn't looked at them for some time.

The last week I have been putting heaps of time on Red Hat 7,(my better half is away,
and I can concentrate) as nearly everyone says that they have no probs with it.


I'm trying to install on 133meg processor,
64 meg edo ram 40 gig drive 1meg video.
I am also using Maxblast (maxtor) software to allow use of more than 8.6 gig for Win98
(Ezybios) My machine may be a bit old for them, but it should still run Linux, even if its a bit slow.

Thanks for the help
Squareyes

[squareyes]

Is there an easy way to uninstall a corrupt
install, without having to reinstall win98
as well. I have lost count of the times I have formatted and reinstalled win98 when lilo doesn't install properly, and I am unable to access win98, can always get into linux with boot disk.
Thanks
squareyes

[chimaybleue]

You have to install Win 98 first, and then Linux ... And if you don't have a recent Lilo version, you'll have to watch the 1024 cylinder rule ... So, if you put your Linux partition at the end of your disk (and I'm sure you do), you have to make a small (20 Mb) partition /boot before the 1024th cylinder (maybe between 2 FAT32 partitions). If it crashes again, just re-post, and we'll try to make it work ...

[bdg1983]

Are you trying Caldera's OpenLinux 1.3? That's very old. Either try eDesktop 2.4 or if your pc is fairly new, then you could try OpenLinux Workstation 3.1. I've installed 3.1 on a few pc's and never had a problem with the install or the running of 3.1.

I just noticed your hardware you listed. Give Caldera's eDesktop 2.4 a try. I used it for around a year and was very pleased with 2.4.

[squareyes]

Thanks for all your help,
I am about to do a low level format, and start yet again.
I have consulted SuSE book and it tells me
that lilo 0.21.4.2 and later supports large drives, I have 21.4.4-13 but am going to set install Win98 on a 2 gig partition then
Red hat on a 4 gig partition immediately
after the Win partition, make another 4 gig
for linux , and the rest for fat32. I hope that that will keep LILO under the required,
Now 8 days, am starting to wish I had never heard of Linux, now having probs with KPPP,
had to reboot twice to connect before I could get past the error message. Some letters disappearing, and others out of place as I write this. Highliting them brings them back.

Thanks again, will get back when I have done the big wipe. Have had plenty of practice installing win98, will try to install Linux without a boot loader, at least I won't have to keep formatting C: and reinstalling Win98.
Take care thanks

Squareyes (The masochist)

[mjb0314]

Originally posted by squareyes:
<STRONG>Is there an easy way to uninstall a corrupt
install, without having to reinstall win98
as well. I have lost count of the times I have formatted and reinstalled win98 when lilo doesn't install properly, and I am unable to access win98, can always get into linux with boot disk.
Thanks
squareyes</STRONG>

Use a win 98 boot disk to boot to dos and issue the command
fdisk /mbr
and that will enable you to reboot into win 98. You shouldn't need to reinstall win 98 everytime you have a failed linux install.

Hope this helps.

[goon12]

I just put in a new HD and read that the software that came with it, EZBios ( I think), would not work with linux or a boot loader.

[squareyes]

Thanks a lot to everyone who gave their help, I finally have Red Hat 7.0 installed and working. At least I don't have curser imprints everywhere, and the boot loader is working. Fingers crossed, now I can start learning.
I think the answer was in formatting the drive into small partitions, I have Win98 on the first, 2 gig, Linux on the next 4 gig.
and it installed easily.

I have big probs with "fdisk/mbr". My drive is 40 gig, bios will only recognise 8.6, so have to use Ezy-Bios to access the full 40gig. When I fdisk/mbr and proceed, I get message telling me that 3rd party formatting and partitioning software causes my "C" drive to be unseen, so have no option to wipe everything and start again. Has been a big pain, but am getting very familiar with the proceedure. I would be happy to do away with Win98 altogether, but my other half won't use anything else, and I do quite a bit on this machine for her.

I have 2 empty partitions, 18 gig, and 15 gig, If I format one of them as a linux partition,how do I access it??

Thanks again, I will probably be back here again, sorry about that. Will get onto a few readme's and find out a bit more.

Squareyes (still a Masochist)

[epseps]

Ahhh!...if you got RH 7.0 working why do you want to do fdisk /mbr? that will destroy your bootloader. If lilo is working normally and not hanging at the LIL then leave it alone, don't touch the boot sector.

You do have an emergency bootdisk for linux made, right?

[squareyes]

Have had 8 days of removing,
and replacing Win, was just interested to know how, (as have lost count of how many times I have removed, and replaced everything again.)it would be good to know how it can be done cleanly.
Never know what the future may hold :-)

squareyes

[squareyes]

Have a couple of spare Rh7 and RH 7.1
boot disks, been there, done that a few times :-) Going cheap, but may not be any good, Floppies rotate opposite in Southern hemisphere :-)

squareyes

[squareyes]

Now into day 10 of this installation, nervous breakdown closer. Thought I had a clean install at last.Nope.The Gimp which is the programme I use most crashes in Gnome, but will work O.K. in Kde, problem with Kde is that when anything is minimalised, it dissappears into the center of the screen, never to return, that is until I reboot and there it is on screen. Nothing goes down to the panel to be reopened. I can use it in Kde, but when I open anything else, good bye to the last thing opened. This also includes the rh pppdialer. Dialer will close in Gnome.

I do have good screen definition now, running 16 bit, 800X600 all my video card will allow. One saving grace.

I can't eject cd's , until I get back to power down on shutdown, from either of my drives, do I have to go to command line and unmount them, this hasn't happenned before.

Does Kpackage get installed with Kde in RH7?

Looks very much like I still need to know how to remove Linux cleanly, with the probs associated with Ezy-Bios, could anyone tell me how?

Will give this 1 more day, then any one wanting some multi colored coasters get in touch. I will have been commited by then.

squareyes (Still a masochist)

[squareyes]

Now into day 10 of this installation, nervous breakdown closer. Thought I had a clean install at last.Nope.The Gimp which is the programme I use most crashes in Gnome, but will work O.K. in Kde, problem with Kde is that when anything is minimalised, it dissappears into the center of the screen, never to return, that is until I reboot and there it is on screen. Nothing goes down to the panel to be reopened. I can use it in Kde, but when I open anything else, good bye to the last thing opened. This also includes the rh pppdialer. Dialer will close in Gnome.

I do have good screen definition now, running 16 bit, 800X600 all my video card will allow. One saving grace.

I can't eject cd's , until I get back to power down on shutdown, from either of my drives, do I have to go to command line and unmount them, this hasn't happenned before.

Does Kpackage get installed with Kde in RH7?

Looks very much like I still need to know how to remove Linux cleanly, with the probs associated with Ezy-Bios, could anyone tell me how?

Will give this 1 more day, then any one wanting some multi colored coasters get in touch. I will have been commited by then.

squareyes (Still a masochist)